Quote:
|
...the VAST majority of those situations are ones in which the officer has intentionally inserted himself. That singular fact is the one thing that completely eliminates any meaningful comparison to civilian situations, IMO.
|
We should expect that it will alter some aspects of LEO shootings vs non-LEO shootings, but it seems quite a stretch to assume that it would completely eliminate any meaningful comparison.
Getting back to your specific argument, it's true that in LE shootings, the LE has generally inserted himself intentionally into the situation. That's different in one sense than non-LEO shootings.
HOWEVER, in any self-defense shooting, it is ALWAYS true that at least ONE of the participants has intentionally inserted himself into the situation. How would the fact that the defender is the one who made that decision dramatically alter the distances involved?
Logically speaking, if anything, it seems more likely that if the defender voluntarily entered into the situation, the distances might be expected to be shorter, since both the attacker and defender could have at least some interest in continuing the engagement.
In general, it would seem to be a wash if the LEO's target is attempting to escape. In that case you'd have one participant trying to continue the engagement while the other is attempting to escape.
As tipoc points out, we should also consider the fact that some of the shootings are totally non-analogous to non-LEO shootings. It may be that some of the longest shootings fall into that category for one reason or another.
I guess what I'm saying is that on the balance, it doesn't seem reasonable to assume that the average distance will be significantly different than what one would expect in non-LEO shootings. Some might be closer due to both participants wanting to continue the engagement, some might be farther away due to the fact that not all LEO shootings are self-defense type shootings, but most of them will probably be good analogs for typical non-LEO self-defense shootings.
All in all, it seems pretty reasonable to expect that if anything, LEO shootings might tend a bit more towards being shorter than typical non-LEO self-defense shootings.